I committed the patch to trunk (r79226), only to discover that it caused occasional failures in test_ftplib:

$ ./python -m test.regrtest -F test_ftplib
test_ftplib
test_ftplib
Exception in thread Thread-116:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/threading.py", line 530, in __bootstrap_inner
    self.run()
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/test/test_ftplib.py", line 223, in run
    asyncore.loop(timeout=0.1, count=1)
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/asyncore.py", line 211, in loop
    poll_fun(timeout, map)
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/asyncore.py", line 148, in poll
    read(obj)
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/asyncore.py", line 80, in read
    obj.handle_error()
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/asyncore.py", line 76, in read
    obj.handle_read_event()
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/test/test_ftplib.py", line 284, in handle_read_event
    super(SSLConnection, self).handle_read_event()
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/asyncore.py", line 421, in handle_read_event
    self.handle_read()
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/test/test_ftplib.py", line 39, in handle_read
    self.baseclass.last_received_data += self.recv(1024)
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/test/test_ftplib.py", line 302, in recv
    return super(SSLConnection, self).recv(buffer_size)
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/asyncore.py", line 370, in recv
    data = self.socket.recv(buffer_size)
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/ssl.py", line 96, in <lambda>
    self.recv = lambda buflen=1024, flags=0: SSLSocket.recv(self, buflen, flags)
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/ssl.py", line 215, in recv
    return self.read(buflen)
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/ssl.py", line 136, in read
    return self._sslobj.read(len)
SSLError: [Errno 2] _ssl.c:1335: The operation did not complete (read)

test test_ftplib failed -- Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/test/test_ftplib.py", line 491, in test_storlines
    self.client.storlines('stor', f)
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/ftplib.py", line 749, in storlines
    return self.voidresp()
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/ftplib.py", line 224, in voidresp
    resp = self.getresp()
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/ftplib.py", line 210, in getresp
    resp = self.getmultiline()
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/ftplib.py", line 196, in getmultiline
    line = self.getline()
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/ftplib.py", line 183, in getline
    line = self.file.readline()
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/socket.py", line 445, in readline
    data = self._sock.recv(self._rbufsize)
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/ssl.py", line 96, in <lambda>
    self.recv = lambda buflen=1024, flags=0: SSLSocket.recv(self, buflen, flags)
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/ssl.py", line 215, in recv
    return self.read(buflen)
  File "/home/antoine/cpython/__svn__/Lib/ssl.py", line 136, in read
    return self._sslobj.read(len)
SSLError: The read operation timed out


Giampaolo, do you think the test is flaky?